About Us

Crickle’s and Co. is a local brunch restaurant and bakery. Founded in 2008, but the inspiration started much earlier. Executive chef and founder Cristal Barnard started cooking with her mom at a very early age. Together they would make food and play restaurant with Chef Cristal’s dad and brother. Little did she know then, her favorite childhood game would turn into a lifetime passion.

Chef Cristal graduated from the Art Institute of Dallas with a degree in Culinary Arts with honors. That educational background and culinary experience helped her to go on to work for some of the top kitchens in the country, including the award-winning French Room in the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas, and also at celebrity Chef Tom Colicchio’s restaurant Craft in Victory Park. Even with such prestigious positions under her belt, she always kept focused on what was most important to her — food and family.

You might ask why a talented young woman opened a quaint restaurant in Dallas? It’s simple, she is doing it her way! It seems dreams do come true with hard work and talent. This is just another stepping stone in her path but it’s a delicious path indeed.

Chef is stubbornly dedicated to using only raw ingredients in her food. Everything is made from scratch from salad dressings to the frosting on the cake. Year round, her entire menu is planned with this commitment to quality in mind — to use only the freshest of ingredients, no preservatives allowed. Of course, that’s not the only way she cooks — if you ask her why her food is so good, she’ll tell you, “We add love to everything we make.”